Florence Huskies fall to Custer County Bobcats, 49-42

Ethan Bombardier pulls down the rebound between two Custer County defenders Saturday at Florence High School. Custer beat the Huskies 49-42 (Lisa Rix/Courtesy Photo)

Florence -- A disastrous first quarter and cold shooting down the stretch was a lethal combination in the Florence boys' basketball team's 49-42 defeat against Custer County on Saturday night.

Florence (3-6, 1-2 Tri-Peaks League) trailed by as many as 13 points, but still had its chances to snag the nonconference win.

Huskies junior guard Ryan Wilson tied the game in the final seconds of the third quarter at 36-36 after completing a three-point play and then again at the 3:58 mark in the fourth quarter with fast-break layups off a steal.

The two ties were as close as Florence would get as the Huskies were outscored 11-4 after Wilson's basket to tie the game at 38-38. It was Custer County (7-2, 0-0 Southern Peaks League) forward Brian O'Connor took over from that point.

O'Connor scored the Bobcats final 11 points over the final 3:40 to spoil the late-game heroics. The Bobcats junior led all scorers with a game-high 24 points.

"It was our nerves and we weren't clutch in the fourth quarter like we wanted to be," Wilson said. The junior scored all of his nine points in the second half comeback attempt. "We were so worried about not coming up clutch that it made us even more nervous and caused us to not finish the game."

It was the beginning of the game, though, that doomed Florence.

For the second consecutive game the Huskies stumbled out of the gate offensively as they shot 1-for-17 through the first eight minutes en route to a 15-2 first-quarter deficit.

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Two quick fouls on senior forward Ethan Bombardier, who drew the assignment of guarding O'Connor, and not having sophomore forward Mathew Miller available also impacted the first quarter woes.

"It's probably the third or fourth game that we've put ourselves in a hole in the first quarter and it's something we have to address as a team," Huskies coach Mark Marquez said. "It (the foul trouble) was real big. We usually have Miller for that three-man rotation so those fouls were huge because I had to find guards who were willing to step-in for those positions."

The Huskies were able to climb their way back in the second and third quarters by switching to a 1-3-1 pressure defense. Florence forced 16 turnovers from Custer County between the two quarters to pull back even going into the fourth quarter.

Junior Josh Sisneros led the Huskies with 16 points, 11 came in the second half, followed by Wilson with nine points and Bombardier with six points.

Sisneros said he is confident the team will learn from their last two defeats and come out ready when the Huskies host Fountain Valley at 5:30 on Friday.

"We're glad this game wasn't a league game or a league loss, but we'll take positives from it," Sisneros said. "We just got to come out Friday in the first quarter and be ready to play four quarters of basketball, make our shots, cut down our turnovers and make our free-throws."

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